1. Heading into the Dolphins mini-camp this weekend, Will Allen continues to be a focal point. The Dolphins don't want to move Allen to safety for good reason. Teams need to play three cornerbacks much of every game and Allen, assuming he returns to form from knee surgery, would be integral to that. The decision is this:

A. Keep Allen at his career strength of cornerback and hope one of the unproven safeties emerges in Chris Clemons, Tyrone Culver or Rashad Jones.

B. Move Allen to safety and use someone like Jason Allen or rookie Nolan Carroll in the nickle package as the third cornerback.

This doesn't even cover the idea that teams typically need four or five cornerbacks in a season due to injury. So you can see why the Dolphins would be hesitant to do B. For now, the hope is one of the safeties plays well enough to answer some questions.

2. The NFL wants South Florida to pump a few hundred million dollars into its stadium to put on a roof so Super Bowl fans don't run the risk of getting wet. But today it'll vote to sit fans in possibly sub-zero weather in New Jersey for the Super Bowl.

3. For those of us who were fans of the show "24,", the merciful end came Monday night. Watching this final season was like watching a close relative suffer at tne end. It was awful. When exactly did the writers quit the show?

This season showed how difficult it is to maintain a top show. How many times can the White House need Jack Bauer's help? How many times can a counter-terrorism unit be infiltrated? How many times can those close to Jack Bauer be killed? How many times can Jack Bauer save America?

Jack survived Monday, hopefully to tackle the oil leak in the Gulf on the big screen.

4. I'm ramping up my World Cup interest by watching the U.S.-Czech Republic game tonight.

5. I wrote the other day eay Smart reader Joe W. and I had a debate whether Jason Taylor (as I said) or Zach Thomas (as Joe W. said) had a better Dolphins career. To set up Joe W.'s return fire at me, I used the example of London Fletcher's stats being comparative to Zach's to show why Taylor's skill set was more unique. Joe W writes:

"First, the London Fletcher thing shouldn’t even come into play because the debate is who should rank higher among the all time Dolphins. I could see the point if we’re discussing HOF credentials, but that’s another debate all together. London Fletcher didn’t play for the Dolphins, so let’s leave him out of it.

"As for your other argument above, Zach Thomas had 11 seasons of 100+ tackles for the Dolphins. Jason Taylor only had 7 seasons of double digit sacks. Tackles vs. sacks is about the only way to compare the two positions and the milestone to best compare them is 100+ tackles for the MLB and double digit sacks for the DE/OLB. Zach was more dominant than Jason when comparing the two positions with those milestones.

"Zach went to 7 Pro Bowls with Miami. Jason went to 6. Again, if you want to use Pro Bowls as a milestone, Zach wins.

"As for the more dominant position argument, for most of those years Miami played a 4-3. I’d argue that the 4-3 MLB is just important as the 4-3 RDE. The entire defense is designed for the MLB to make tackles and the DE to rush the passer and get sacks.

"Now, in a 3-4 defense, yes the WOLB is more important than the MILB, but there weren’t many years of that defense to compare. When did Saban take over? 2005? Jason had 3 of his 7 double digit sacks after that transition. In the first 8 years playing together, when the defense was more neutral to both the MLB and the DE, Zach had 8 years of 100+ tackles, but Jason only had 4 years of double digit sacks. Again, Zach wins.

"It was after that defensive transition that Jason starting being more productive and catching up to Zach. However, those later years of production are not enough, in my opinion, to rank Jason over Zach in terms of importance to this franchise.

"In fact, I’d probably argue that if Zach left the Dolphins after that defensive transition and went to another 4-3 team he’d probably still be playing. Even though he was still productive for 2 seasons after that transition he wore down quickly after that. He would have been better served staying with a 4-3 team that had the two big DT to protect him vs. a 3-4 defense where he had to take on lineman and more fullback collisions. His size (5-11, 225-230lbs) is not best served being used in that role.

"One final note, a couple of years ago on “Hard Knocks” with the Dallas Cowboys Chris Mortensen was standing on the sideline chatting with some Cowboy executive. They caught the conversation on film and audio. Chris said to this guy that Peyton Manning told him that Zach Thomas was the smartest football player he’s ever played against. In my opinion, when the most cerebral QB of all time ranks Zach as the smartest defender he’s ever played against it should push him over the top when comparing him to anybody; Dolphin all time discussions or Hall of Fame."

My quick return: Pro Bowls are overvalued (take this year when one-third of the elected players didn't show, meaning their replacements get Pro Bowl on their resume). Don't overlook Taylor's NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. You make the case Zach was helped by the system while Taylor was hindered by it.

A side note: Whenever people say systems don't matter, I point to Zach and John Offerdahl. Similar smarts. Similar toughness. Similar in the idea they both had small bodies for middle linebacker. But Thomas played in a 4-3 defense where two big defensive tackles kept interior linemen off him and allowed him to stay healthy. Offerdahl played a 3-4, where he had to take on linemen every play and lasted eight seasons.

Comments

You are so right on about Goodell playing games with South Florida where people seem to always have a great Super Bowl experience (even if it did rain a couple of years ago) v the freezing winter experience of the game in New York. I get it. It's a lot more comfortable for fans wearing parkas, gloves, mufflers, scarves, 5 pair of socks, etc, than relaxing in the warmth dow here and partying on the beach.

I really have no problem with doing this one time, but Commissioner, PLEASE don't hold South Florida hostage by saying the stadium is inadequate. If you don't want the Super Bowl down here any more, put it in New England every year.

I agree with Joe W. in principle, though on some of the particulars I would have to go ahead and say that reality is the opposite of what he says about the relative values of RDE/MLB in a 4-3 versus WOLB/ILB in a 3-4. There's no doubt in my mind that primary pass rushing DE is the most important position in a 4-3 defense...of any position, even CB.

I wouldn't focus so much on the statistics and the Pro Bowls, the DPOY stuff, etc. I think that's a wash.

What I would focus on is that in addition to personal achievement, what Zach Thomas did is make the players around him better. That's not lip service, he actually called the offense's play before the snap a large percentage of the time, which helped the other players in the defense play better. Peyton Manning's talked about this several times, he said that Zach Thomas was the best defender he's ever faced. Why? Because he was always calling out his plays in the huddle. He always called out his audibles at the line. He'd audible a screen and Zach would yell it out every time. Peyton has talked about this on camera before. When Sparano shared that story at the press conference about how he game planned against Zach Thomas once and they thought they had the answer, giving him a bunch of looks and misdirection that he wouldn't have seen out of them before, and after a few series the offensive linemen came back to Tony and told him his plan wasn't working because Zach was calling all the plays before they were even out of the huddle...that wasn't puffery. Ask Peyton Manning.

What do you think that did for the players around Zach Thomas? What do you think having that coach-on-the-field did for their play level? The Dolphins cycled through some pretty mediocre talent back in those days but the defense always had an identity and found ways to dominate. Was it the scheme? Heck no, most vanilla scheme in the NFL during its era and Jim Bates hasn't found success anywhere since. It was Zach, calling the plays. It was Zach, going through his insane film study sessions and even handing notes to other players (I believe you can ask Channing Crowder about that).

One other point that I'd like to make is about this criticism that Zach has taken throughout his career, that he was protected by Miami's scheme and the scheme made him. Miami played a 4-3 Over and everyone thought that without those two big Defensive Tackles in front of him, Zach would never have thrived. Nick Saban came to town with a hybrid 3-4/4-3 Under system. There was little doubt that the system was going to help Jason Taylor star, by showing off his athleticism. However, EVERYONE was convinced that it would wash Zach Thomas into obscurity, and possibly off the team before he could even play a game in the system. What happened? Whether statistically or anecdotally, Zach Thomas had arguably his best two-year stretch in his entire professional career in 2005 and 2006, in that system...a system that was NOT supposed to be suited for him. Look it up. That doesn't get enough air play, the fact that Zach played in a system everyone said he'd fail in, and he did even better than he had in the previous system.

And here is a final point, which ties back to what I was saying for what Zach's presence on gameday did for the entire defense, outside of the tackles and big plays that Zach made.

Zach Thomas missed 24 out of his 201 games in his career with Miami. The team went 10-14 (.417) during those games he missed. They went 93-83 (.528) during the games he played.

Teams averaged 141.2 yards rushing during the 24 games he wasn't there. They averaged 107.8 yards per game when he was there.

Teams averaged 21.9 points per game while he was out. They averaged 19.6 points per game while he played.

During the 7 games that Jason Taylor failed to start from 1997 to 2007, the team went 5-2, averaged 16.0 points per game allowed, allowed 88.8 rushing yards per game and 231.4 passing yards per game. The defense held 6 of those 7 opponents to 17 points or less.

Basically the defense showed an ability to function at a high level without Jason Taylor starting and in the game. The defense didn't show that same kind of ability to dominate without Zach Thomas in the game. Even if you exclude 2007, with Zach Thomas out of the game the defense held opponents to 17 or under 5 out of 13 games, as opposed to 6 of 7 with Jason Taylor.

dave - i think you're right about the scheme being signficant -- and i'd say offerdahl should be considered HOF along with zach (how many seasons did gale sayers play?)... one note -- they're not the same size -- offerdahl 6'3 / zt 5-11

Thank you, phinfreak. You have called attention to the fact that only those who have played a certain sport competitively can comprehend the game. The Marlin shortstop recently established that without pro playing experience, even his manager is under-qualified to talk about his sport. So ... you did play in the NFL, didn't you, phinfreak? I mean, this blog doesn't need the opinions of the unqualified, right? I bet you still wear that jock...

Okay first of all, I fall in the Zach-camp, but I'm a huge JT fan as well.
Here's how I see it... Zach is the ever-dependable stud who consistently played at a top-notch level. JT is the exciting game changer who could be quiet for awhile then come up with 2 or 3 huge plays that could change a game. If I want someone who is going to stop the offensive plan of another team for an entire game, I want Zach. If I'm behind and on defense, I want to go to JT and say "get us that ball".
I agree with Joe W. in that Zach's longer tenure as a high-level producer outweighs JT's shorter time as an explosive, higher-impact player.
One more thing I consider though... JT had a higher level of natural physical athleticism. Zach not only did more, but he did with less. That's one of the main reasons he's my #1all-time Dolphin Player... yeah, even over 'You-know-who'.

One more thought - I bet if you asked Zach's and JT's opinions, they would point to the other as having the better Dolphin's career... yet more more reason to be a fan of both men.

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About the author

DAVE HYDE finished second in 2009 in voting for the nation’s top sports columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors. It was the third time in four years he has finished second in the country in APSE voting for either column or sports feature writing. He has placed 13 times in the Top 10 of APSE writing categories in his career, including a first for investigative work. His writing has been featured in the “Best American Sports Writing” anthology and he has authored “Still Perfect: The Untold Story of the 1972 Miami Dolphins” and "1968: The Year That Saved Ohio State Football.” He worked for Miami Herald before coming to the Sun Sentinel in 1990.